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Thursday, 15 September 2022

When you nearly get run over by one these on the sidewalk, remember, it’s for the planet

Get out of a traffic jam sustainably with Tier’s e-scooter: German-headquartered, shared micro-mobility provider Tier Mobility AG (which goes by the acronym “TM") rolled out its latest fleet of e-bikes in the Middle East this year, the company detailed over twitter. While these have been annoying pedestrians in cities in the US (watch, runtime: 4:48), rented transportation has been getting props as a sustainable form of transportation, with some e-scooter companies receiving valuations in the USD bns (watch, runtime: 10:05).

Let’s look at the specs of the Tier V e-scooter — the model available in our neck of the woods: The Tier V has a service life span of 5 years, while “effectively having an unlimited lifespan due to entirely modular, replaceable, and repairable components,” according to Tier. They are roughly designed based on a regular kick scooter but are built to enable shared rides for multiple users. Tier’s scooters are packed with an electric motor that provides a speed capacity of up to 20 km/hour. They can cover distances up to 5 km without charge.

Safety features: The EV’s safety features include shock absorbers, indicator lights, turn indicators which offer 360° visibility, as well as the “largest front wheel in the market,” the company says. “They also come with triple brakes and a double kickstand which see TIER lead the sector when it comes to stopping-distance and wind topple tests.”

The Tier V model was built with sustainability in mind: The TIER V only emits 42.8 g of carbon dioxide per kilometer, which is over 70% less than emissions caused a cars over the same distance, according to Tier. The model’s batteries are also swappable, prolonging the bike’s lifespan. The German company also launched their Tier Energy Network concurrently with the introduction of the bike in the Middle East. The charging network enables riders to exchange drained batteries for charged ones at charging stations hosted by businesses such as retail stores and restaurants, Tier details.

They’re only rental: Like many of the e-scooter startups that saw their valuations shoot up, Tier does not actually sell the scooters to the broader public. They simply rent out to users.

For how much? Tier charges users a USD 0.80 fee to rent the e-bikes, riders will then have to pay USD 0.27 per minute. The price is the same across Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar.

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